Travis County Commissioners Court
August 12, 2008
Citizens Communication
>> a good morning. Let's call to order this voting session of the Travis County Commissioners court. Commissioner Davis is on the way down so he should arrive momentarily and Commissioner eckhardt is running 5 tore 10 minutes late but she will join us as soon as possible. And citizens communication is first. Two citizens have signed in. Gus pena and allen rody. This item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda. Good morning.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners. Gus pena. First item, you know that I have been speaking about the problem of veterans not receiving the appropriate health care at appropriate veterans care put and appropriate het clinics in the health district. I haven't dealt with many senators, specifically senator james webb of west virginia and a proponent for veterans issues and one of the front runners to be barack obama's vice presidential running mate. We understand the government accounting agency and the inspector general will be investigating health facilities, medical centers throughout the united states that are in noncompliance in regards to helping veterans with the health care issues. And also other v.a. Medical offices that are supposed to be helping and not hindering veterans that are eligible for pension or disability. That will help the -- some of the problems that we are experiencing at the health district and the hospital district and the clinics that at times have denied health care for a lot of veterans and people that are nonveterans. Funding for social service agencies, you know and I've said this for many years and many meetings the gap widens between the haves and have nots. It's not people's fault because they live in poverty. We leave it up to the lord, not anybody else, but where it is applicable or appropriate, please increase the funding for social service agencies. They need help for rental, electrical assistance, anything, food assistance right now. The food bank is drying up, they need help. Please, people in central Texas, they are kind and good hearted, donate to the food bank. Poverty is prevalent, not just people that are in poverty, people that are working in a low-income job. Constable bob van has been very active in the community and I want to help him for helping out with the youth issues a couple of us brought out. Bob, you are a positive in the community and we thank you for the help you have given the kids. I don't have to name names, but the kids appreciate it. School starts August 25th for stun independent school district. Parents, 974-20001 a general city of Austin number to call to have your kids vaccinated, immunized. It is the law, please identity. If you need to file a waiver, there are appropriate forms. Under the law you can file the waiver, but please immunize them. It is a risk factor if you don't. Bring your shot record and, of course, a parent. Need to have a parent along with you.
>> [speaking in spanish] thank you all very much and thank you for allowing me to bring this information to you. God bless you and keep up the good work.
>> thank you, mr. Pena.
>> alan roddy is next.
>> good morning, Commissioners. I don't know if you remember me or not, but I was here last fall talking about the west bank library. Judge briscoe, you asked me if I wanted to get involved in politics. I didn't really want to, but in order to vote against the board of trustees I had to run for office because they hadn't had an election out there since 2001. And without advertising or spending any money, I got 25 votes besides my own. I'm here today to ask y'all to -- was 25 the winning tally?
>> no. Well, every year they are going to have an election from now on out there. So I'm here to ask you all to create a library district for the unincorporated area of Travis County. All this area in white. Right now I live in the unincorporated area of Travis County out in the western end of -- well, eanes school district is roughly the same area of the west bank library, but people out in the county, we don't get much representation. That library was built for the people in West Lake Hills. That's who they serve. I believe that all children in Travis County should have the same opportunity to have library services. With chapter 336 of the local code, I believe you all can do it by resolution. Now y'all can use the same sales tax that the library districts are using so you don't have to raise the property tax or dip into the general fund. We have one hospital district, we have one park district for the employees. Why are we setting up these multiple little library districts that serve certain people and certain areas? You know, the people out at pale face park, the people at hamilton pool road, they have parks out there but they don't have library services. I believe that y'all could run a library district. The other cities that have smaller libraries, they can join in. The library districts can merge into this one county-wide district. It would save a lot of tax money by having one library district, not five, six. Apparently we have four library districts in Travis County. What, in ten years we're going to have ten library districts? It would save a lot of money just having one district. Spending that sales tax revenue. I hope you all consider this. I went went to your staffs last week to discuss this. I hope you can put this on the end sometime. I would like to make this an issue in November's election coming up. Do we want library services for all of Travis County? Should all the children in Travis County have the same access to our services? I think we should. Thank you.
>> thank you, mr. Roddy. Anybody else for citizens communication whether you signed in or not.
>> I'm in your precinct.
>> I know exactly where you live, mr. Roddy. Not exactly, I just know where you are live.
>> a lot of people don't know I live off querbaca. Especially people in West Lake Hills.
>> do you have a sign-in sheet, jennifer gale? Would you give it to mary and let her pass it down?
>> good morning, Commissioners court, judge Sam business crow, Commissioners Gomez, Daugherty, Ron Davis and we're missing our sara eckhardt from -- let's see, five-year cost of living is what I asked for for our bus operators and they are only being offered four years. They are telling 24 months they can only have three accidents whereas it used to be three years. The only thing that I can guess from all this is they are trying to get rid of the rest of the drivers. Been told by people that work for capital metro that nearly half the bus operators are gone since the last contract. Now there's a -- August 20th vote that the bus operators are supposed to go for, which would be ridiculous if they are to go and vote because they have no intention of passing this. This contract is clearly designed to get rid of bus operators. And that's what it's doing. I asked back in February or January for you to intervene. They are not dealing in good faith. The -- the woman that came in to replace the man in charge of star trance is a union buster and brought in for that purpose. They have cameras on the buses that are used to protect bus operators and passengers, but are now being used to persecute bus operators. That's not what they are there for. The two-tier system has destroyed half the bus operators, just as I told you it would years ago. We need to get rid of the two-tier system, give them a five-year contract. There's no discussion of cost of living. And you know cost of living how quickly it's rising. There's also -- they are not -- there's no discussion. They are being told what's going to happen on this contract. Fred gillman is clearly hired
>> [inaudible]. It's been ten years since cap metro had an audit, according to a bus operator, ten years. Now they are using our money and more money than was allocated to them for light rail. This is called light rail larceny. Passengers are supposed to pay for schedule booklets. Again, another money grab. Why are they getting rid of bus operators? So that they don't have to pay very much money. It's like 10 or 11 dollars. But there's been no contract for nearly 14 months. Now our police, fire and e.m.s. In the city of Austin are getting unbelievable concessions from the city of Austin. They get nearly $10,000 now as it is over dallas and chicago. Whereas our bus operators are treated very poorly. And who is their representation?
>> [buzzer sounding] I agree with gus pena that our system -- I use the v.a. Yesterday and it doesn't take care of veterans. It certainly didn't take care of me. I want to wish everyone a happy labor day and welcome children back to school. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you. Anybody else for citizens communication?
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 1:37 PM